Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India

19 Pages·2015·0.22 MB·English

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Saint Thomas, Missionary
Apostle to India
The Acts of Thomas is an early third-century attestation of a missionary narrative
in the Syriac tradition that attributes the conversion of India to Saint Thomas, the
apostle known as Jesus’s twin (John 20:24).1 In this extended apocryphal narrative,
Christ commissions Judas Thomas to travel to India to convert its people.2 Thomas
journeys there by way of the trade routes as a servant enslaved to merchants.
The Acts of Thomas has received much scholarly attention and is the subject of
several full-length studies, notably those of A. F. J. Klijn, J. Bremmer, and H. J. W.
Drijvers.3 The text appears to have been written in Syriac, but was almost immedi-
ately translated into Greek, and then was translated into Syriac again.4 Scholars
examine this text from a variety of angles, ranging from the history of early Syrian
asceticism to the text’s influence in Manichaean circles. Scholars have described
the text as Gnostic, Encratite, Manichaean, or anti-Manichaean. J. W. Childers
notes that different recensions do reflect particular theological tendencies.5 The
earlier scholarly tendency, however, to characterize the Acts as “Gnostic” may
derive from Western scholars’ lack of acquaintance with the unique traits of early
Syriac Christianity.6
Many stories about Saint Thomas from late antiquity have survived, but the
Acts of Thomas is unique in its influence on subsequent sacred fictions. It presents
the Christian missionary life as one of sacrifice, itinerancy, asceticism, and imita-
tion of Christ. The Acts of Thomas enshrines the symbol of the missionary apostle
in Syriac religious memory. In the late antique world the narrative spread an
account of imaginary conversions of mythic places on the road to India. And the
symbol of the missionary struck a chord in the cultures of the Christian East,
within both the Roman Empire and the Sasanian milieu. The text’s widespread
17
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18 Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India
dissemination and translation attest to its popularity in late antiquity. While the
authors of subsequent missionary stories studied in this book may not intention-
ally imitate the Acts of Thomas in their hagiographies, it is clear that the Acts of
Thomas gave power to the symbol of the missionary saint.
PRÉCIS
The Acts of Thomas contains thirteen chapters that depict India’s conversion to
Christianity through the apostle Thomas. As it is longer than any other text
included in this book, I summarize the narrative here. Readers familiar with the
story may wish to pass over this section. The section divisions in parentheses cor-
respond to Klijn’s commentary and translation of the Syriac text.
The [First] Act of Judas Thomas, the Apostle: Jesus assigns each apostle an
area of the world to convert. The lot of India falls to Thomas, his slave (1.1).7
Jesus sells Thomas to the merchant Habban to be a carpenter for King
Gundaphorus (1.2).8 Thomas and Habban set out for India, and they reach
Sandaruk (1.3).9 Thomas attends a banquet of the king in honor of the
princess’s wedding, but he abstains from eating, anointing himself, and
praying. A Hebrew flute girl notices him (1.4). A cupbearer slaps Thomas
[now called “Judas”] for not celebrating. Thomas sings a song in Hebrew
that describes the church as a bride of light, with the apostles as
groomsmen (1.6–7). The Hebrew flute girl recognizes the words he sings,
and the cupbearer is torn apart by a lion (1.8). The flute girl proclaims that
Thomas is either God or his apostle (1.9). Thomas prays over the princess
bride and the bridegroom, and the prayer contains a Christological
proclamation (1.10). When the bride and bridegroom are about to
consummate their marriage, Jesus appears to the bride in the form of
Thomas (1.11). Jesus persuades the couple to abstain from the sickness,
death, and torment that he associates with sex and childrearing, and they
agree (1.12). This scandalizes the king and queen (1.13). The girl explains to
her parents that she is wed to a heavenly bridegroom, Christ (1.14). The
groom praises Christ, who has shown him his true self (1.15). The king is
furious, and he chases the apostle out of his kingdom, but the apostle
continues his journey in India (1.16).
The Second Act: Thomas and Habban the merchant reach India and King
Gundaphorus. Thomas identifies himself as a carpenter, and he agrees to
build a palace for the king (2.17–18). But Thomas instead gives the money
for the palace to the poor (2.19). People report back to the king that
Thomas is giving the money to the indigent, teaching them about
Christianity, and practicing acts of ascetic piety: fasting, prayer, and
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Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India 19
almsgiving (2.20). Thomas tells the king that he has built him a palace in
heaven, and the king arrests Thomas and the merchant (2.21). The brother
of the king, Gad, dies, his soul is taken to heaven, and he sees the palace
that Thomas’s acts of charity have built (2.22). Gad returns from heaven in
order to tell his brother about the heavenly palace (2.23). The king realizes
his mistake, frees Thomas and the merchant, and asks for Thomas’s
forgiveness (2.24). Judas prays a gift of thanksgiving (2.25). The entire
community rejoices and prays together and prepares for baptism (2.26).
Thomas pours oil over their heads, prays to the Holy Spirit, baptizes them,
and then at dawn they share in the Eucharist (2.27). Thomas preaches to
the newly baptized (2.28). Thomas shares a meal with his disciples, and
they head off on the road together, according to Christ’s instruction (2.29).
The Third Act: On the road, Thomas sees a dead boy (3.30). A snake appears
and tells Thomas that he lusted after a girl whom the [dead] boy had
loved. The snake watched the two youths have sex, and then killed the boy
(3.31). The snake identifies himself as the son of Satan (3.32). Thomas
commands the snake to suck the poison from the dead youth, and the
snake obeys. The boy comes back to life, and the snake bursts (3.33). The
youth praises Christ, and Thomas encourages him (3.34–36). The entire
community converts to Christianity and praises Thomas as the apostle of
the living God (3.37).
The Fourth Act: The colt, speaking as a man, instructs the apostle to sit upon
him, so that the he can carry the apostle the way his ancestor carried
Christ. He identifies himself a descendant of Balaam’s ass (4.39–40). The
ass carries Thomas into the city (4.41).
The Fifth Act: Thomas exorcises a woman whom demons had raped (5.41–46).
Thomas praises Jesus, he baptizes the woman, and then they share in the
Eucharist (5.47–49).
The Sixth Act: A young man who fornicates with his girlfriend is unable to
receive the Eucharist because he killed his girlfriend when she would not
convert to Christianity with him (6.50). The young man repents and is
purified by Thomas’s prayer and ritual (6.51). Thomas and the crowd of
people then go in search of the young woman, and they pray over her
(6.52). Thomas raises her from the dead by invoking Jesus’s name (6.53).
The resurrected girl gives a description of the underworld, a smelly place,
where the chaste are separated from fornicators (6.54). Thomas uses her
warning as an admonition for all the newly baptized (6.55–58). All the
people surrender themselves to the living God and commit themselves to
care of the poor and widows (6.59–60). Thomas’s prayer equates
discipleship with “becoming a stranger” for the sake of Christ (6.61).
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20 Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India
The Seventh Act: The general of India approaches Thomas that he might help
his wife and daughter whom a violent man attacked (6.64). Thomas
entrusts a deacon, Xanthippus, to care for the community, and the apostles
continues on the road with the general.
The Eighth Act: The general and Thomas are aided by wild asses who bow
down to them and are willingly yoked to help the apostle and the general
(8.69–70). They find the general’s wife and daughter, and Thomas orders
the ass to instruct the demon to leave the wife and daughter of the general
(8.73–74). Thomas drives the demon out of the women (8.75–77). All are
amazed to hear the preaching of the wild ass and the apostle’s healings
(8.78–81).
The Ninth Act: Thomas and the general reach the home of Mygdonia, a
kinsperson of the king, and Thomas comforts the servants of those who
work for Mygdonia and her husband (9.82–84). Thomas presents an
extended homily on holiness (9.85–86) and humility (9.86). Mygdonia falls
at Thomas’s feet and begs to become a Christian and transform her body
into a holy temple of the Spirit (9.87). Thomas tells Mygdonia to rise, turn
away from bodily adornments, turn away from earthly marriage, and
worship Christ alone (9.88). Mygdonia pulls away from her husband
Karish, resisting his company and refusing to eat with him (9.89–92).
Mygdonia continues to receive instruction from Thomas (9.93–94). Her
husband is angry that she spends so much time with Thomas, whom she
calls a “physician of the soul” and whom he calls a “sorcerer” and a
“stranger” (9.95). Karish’s resentment builds as his wife refuses to eat and
have sex with him (9.96). Mygdonia prays for support, and she refuses her
husband’s sexual advances (9.97–98). Her husband Karish weeps and seeks
that the king, Mazdai, avenge the apostle (9.99–102). Mygdonia bemoans
her situation to the apostle (9.103). The king has his men hunt after
Thomas, they apprehend Thomas, and they put him in jail for sorcery and
reviling the king (9.105–6). While in prison, Thomas prays and poetically
recounts the Hymn of the Pearl (9.106–13). Mygdonia is tortured and
inconsolable, and she is unmoved by her husband’s pleas for her love. She
confesses to her husband her commitment to Jesus and continence
(9.114–17).
The Tenth Act: Mygdonia prepares for baptism and the Eucharist (10.119–20).
Thomas anoints her and baptizes her, Karish makes her choose between
him and Jesus, and she professes her fidelity to Christ (10.121–24). The king
and Mazdai reproach Thomas again (10.125–30). Thomas preaches about
the glory of baptism (10.131–32). Thomas shares in the Eucharist with the
general and his daughters (10.133).
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Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India 21
The Eleventh Act: The queen Tertia goes to comfort Mygdonia, and
Mygodonia tells Tertia about the wonders of Christianity (11.136). Tertia is
then equally elated about Christianity, and Mazdai is infuriated at the
apostle. Both Mazdai and Karish go to the house of the general and
physically assault Thomas (11.137).
The Twelfth Act: Vizan, the prince, speaks with Thomas sympathetically, and
the king subjects the apostle to ordeals. God brings a flood upon the king
(12.141). Judas and the community of new Christians pray together in
prison (12.142–49).
The Thirteenth Act: Vizan, the prince, is baptized (13.150). Mygodonia and
Tertia visit the apostle in prison, and the apostle prepares the group for
baptism. They all share another Eucharist (13.157–58).
The Martyrdom of the Apostle Thomas: Thomas is imprisoned, and gives a
special commissioning to Tertia and Mygdonia, and he is tried, stripped,
and martyred. After Thomas’s death, King Mazdai is ultimately converted
because of sickness from which his son is healed. (159–70).
The colorful coming of Christianity to India brings violence, chaos, abrupt
interventions, scandals, and social revolt. Thomas’s apostolic legitimacy comes
from his kinship with Christ, and he demonstrates this through miracles and
godly insight. Thomas converts people from every social stratum through mira-
cles, exorcisms, poetic discourse, and ritual.
THE ACTS OF THOMAS AS A NARRATIVE TYPOLOGY
OF THE SYRIAC MISSIONARY STORY
Just as missionaries traveled throughout the Syriac-speaking world, so did stories
about them. In the third century c.e., stories about the apostle Thomas that were
circulating among Syriac speakers were compiled into a composite text, the Acts of
Thomas.10 The popularity of the Acts of Thomas among late antique audiences dem-
onstrates that Syriac- and Greek-speaking Christians gravitated to the symbol of a
reluctant missionary apostle. Circulation of the Acts of Thomas among Christian
groups was broad, and subsequent Syriac hagiographers followed in its literary
footsteps. As we will see, some of the main motifs in the Acts of Thomas work
together to form a narrative typology that is found in other missionary stories.
Genre: The Bible and Ancient Novels
The Acts of Thomas belongs to the genre of apocryphal narrative. The New Testa-
ment book of the Acts of the Apostles presents a picture of Jesus’s disciples estab-
lishing new societies of believers in the regions around the Mediterranean. Before
his ascension to heaven, Jesus instructs his followers to be his witnesses, going out
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22 Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India
from Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), and as they move
from place to place, he urges them to heal and speak with boldness (Acts 4:13).
Some awestruck people accept Jesus’s followers, but others ridicule them and
accuse them of madness, saying they are “filled with new wine” (Acts 2:13). The
book of Acts exhibits literary patterns and sets precedents that subsequent stories
about the apostles will use to describe individual and communal conversions. We
find these stories within the Acts of Thomas. The creation of a new Christian soci-
ety is accompanied by chaos and miracles, turmoil and rebirth.
The integration of biblical typologies in the Acts of Thomas is obvious. Thomas,
mirroring the activities of his twin, Christ, converts through healing.The saint’s
wonderworking ability shows his access to the divine. Thomas resurrects dead chil-
dren, who come back to life and confess Christ.11 The apostle uses sacraments to heal
those whom demons torment.12 We read, for example, a variant on the story of the
resurrection narratives of Mary Magdalene and Jesus.13 When the matron Mygdonia
visits Thomas in prison, she does not recognize him: “[Mygdonia] was afraid and fell
down. And he stood up [qom] before her and said, ‘Don’t be afraid Mydgonia!’ Do
not desert Jesus Christ. Do not desert your Lord to whom you have entrusted your
soul.”14 Novelistic elements are used in a paradoxical way as the text promotes ascet-
icism and romanticized chaste relationships between men and women: Mygdonia
flees her husband’s bed to visit the apostle.15 Like the Acts of the Apostles, this text
features a miraculous escape from prison,16 and like some of the noncanonical nar-
ratives about Jesus, including the Gospel of Nicodemus and the Acts of Pilate, the Acts
of Thomas features a tour of the underworld. H. J. W. Drijvers notes that parallels and
shared motifs of the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles “can be better explained from
the common background of tradition and milieu shared by the two Acts.”17 The Syr-
iac version of the Acts of Thomas enumerates the names of the apostles along with
their missionary assignments. This specificity is absent from the Greek text.
The narrative also expands on the Pauline image of Christ’s kenosis.18 The all-
powerful Lord becomes a slave to redeem humanity, and he then sells his freeborn
twin into slavery to further his mission. The holy man qua slave motif, moreover,
can be an allusion to the biblical patriarch Joseph, whose brothers sold him into
slavery.19 Thomas distinguishes his mission: “I am imitating you my Lord Jesus
Christ. It is not just that I believe, but that I endure many things! You made me
worthy to be in the Lord’s image.”20
The Acts of Thomas features the leitmotifs of exotic travel, royal characters, and
mistaken identity that we find in the late antique Greek novels and in other apoc-
ryphal Acts.21 Greek novels also feature the motif of a hero sold to an Indian mer-
chant. Xenophon of Ephesus, for instance, writes of the Greek heroine Anthea,
who was sold as a slave to a rich Indian merchant.22
Like the stories of the Greek novels, the Acts of Thomas features adventures and
themes of romance. It also shares motifs with the Acts of Paul and Thecla, the Acts
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Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India 23
of John, the Acts of Andrew, and the Acts of Philip. Their similarities with the Greco-
Roman novel have been demonstrated elsewhere: “There is a motley mixture of
miracle stories, fantastic deeds of the apostle, conversions, nature miracles and
stories of demons, which are akin to the novelistic narrative art of the ancient
world.”23 The Christianity that Thomas brings turns society upside down and
undoes the laws of nature. The story reorders a pagan landscape into a Christian
one with scenes of weddings overturned, Christian queens fleeing from their
pagan husbands dead women returning from the underworld and donkeys reveal-
ing hidden knowledge.24
The compiler of the Acts of Thomas, however, uses the structure of the novel
and the Acts of the Apostles to promote the theological ideals and practices of the
emergent communities of the Christian East.25 Christian mission brings chaos and
upheaval to pagan society, but it transforms states of social disorder into well-
arranged Christian kingdoms.
Divine Kinship and Twin Discourse
The Acts of Thomas blends discourse on twins and family with the Christian rheto-
ric of paradox to construct an apostolic history for the Orient. The Acts pairs
images of twins and slaves, masters and apostles, to elevate its patron’s lineage.
Twin discourse elevates Thomas’s status by blurring distinctions between the
actions of Christ and those of the apostle. Thomas heals and exorcises as Christ
does,26 and the characters mistake Thomas and Christ for each other.27 The story
includes themes with biblical precedents: Thomas is a carpenter like Christ, who
preaches and shares meals with his disciples after he has healed them. Thomas, like
Jesus, dies at the hands of a political ruler. Yet a closer look reveals the stark differ-
ences between Thomas’s deeds and those of the canonical Jesus: Thomas occupies
himself with kings, queens, and princesses, and the affairs of the royal bedroom.28
Jesus works with fishermen, sinful women, lepers, and occupies himself with the
affairs of Galilean peasants.29 Thomas travels as a slave with merchants.30 The twin
language and Thomas’s weaving of biblical verses into the text, however, naturalize
these divergences between Thomas and Christ, giving the story a biblical gloss and
“India” an apostolic past.
The twinning of Christ and Thomas corresponds to the construction of the
text’s dualistic symbolic universe. The story sets up contrasts between the corrupt-
ible and the incorruptible, kings and servants, the demonic and this earth versus
the divine and heaven, men and women, conversion of the heart and healing of the
body, and so on. Even earthly “goods” are poor imitations of their heavenly coun-
terparts.31 This hermeneutic emerges also in the narrative pattern of the hidden
and the revealed the eye of the body versus the eye of the heart the temporal world
versus eternal life.32 The text is promoting the divine insight that Thomas has. Tho-
mas uncovers the dual dimensions of the world hidden to most. Satan, as prince of
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24 Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India
the material world, beguiles human beings into a state of forgetfulness about their
true origin; the earth is a neutral arena in which good and evil intermingle. The
missionary wins the world for his God and the Christians, and he replaces demons
with servants of Christ to unify fragmented persons and communities.
The Acts of Thomas creates two contrasting lines of descent in two nonhuman
biblical characters: a talking donkey that descends from Balaam’s ass and the ser-
pent sprung from the snake of Genesis.33 The snake calls himself a creeper and the
son of a creeper,34 and he portrays his participation in evil events in biblical his-
tory. The donkey, which carries Thomas on his back, claims to be an heir of noble
asses memorialized in scripture.35 Just as apostles divide into Judas Thomas’s and
Judas Iscariots, and incorporeal beings into angels and demons, so the text uses
biblical animals to construct twinned lines of descent in the created world. The
donkey/serpent motif shows inversions of power: the snake tempts and poisons;
his authority comes from his kinship to Satan. The beast’s prophetic speech reveals
the nearness of the donkey to the divine, and his humble service to Thomas.
Theology of Sacred Travel: Real and Spiritual Journeys to Christ
The Acts of Thomas, like all missionary stories, focuses on journeys, both physical
and spiritual. Thomas is a foreigner, aksenāyā, who enters the social fabric of the
kingdoms of India from below, as a craftsman or carpenter.36 The wandering apos-
tle, homeless and uninterested in concerns of the world, directs people to their
true heavenly home by assigning to them positions in the Christian earthly hierar-
chy that anticipate their lives in heaven.
Thomas is on a journey to India, but as he converts people, he leads them on an
interior journey to Christ. The theological underpinnings of the story distinguish
it from the Greek novels of late antiquity. Jesus sends Thomas away from Jerusalem
to convert the East, and the apostle’s sacred travels begin. The narrative also
describes unseen journeys of the spirit to which Thomas calls his disciples, as he
awakens their souls to recall their true selves. A newly converted prince of India
explains to his father that he has discovered his divine origin: “He [Thomas]
showed me how to find my own self.”37 The Acts portray Christianity as religion
that heals the body and spirit and brings freedom. Faith in Thomas’s God trans-
forms new converts. The Acts of Thomas stands out from later texts, however, in its
focus on the divine origins of the individual believer. The hymns of the Acts of
Thomas contain theological metaphors describing the church as a bride of light.
The Acts of Thomas also connects the wandering apostle motif with another bridal
symbol in the Syriac language, the verb mkar. The root meaning of the word is “to
barter,” while its extended meaning is “to betrothe.” The apostle, a slave to the mer-
chant, thus facilitates the marriage between the bridegroom Christ and his
betrothed, the church: a heavenly eschatological wedding feast arranged by the
apostle, as the bartering or betrothing merchant.38
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Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India 25
The theology of sacred wandering and returning to Christ is best exemplified in
the hymn that Thomas sings while he is imprisoned: the “Hymn on the Pearl.”39
Thomas chants about a king and queen who send their son on an expedition to
find a hidden pearl, giving him a royal tunic. The prince sets out, but he loses his
way in Egypt and forgets his royal heritage. His parents send him a letter to help
him recall his mission and royal lineage. The youth then regains his robe, retrieves
the pearl from the serpent, and comes home to rule his land with his brother: “The
Hymn is a symbolic portrayal of the life of Adam, the man who of his own free will
left his Father’s house, Paradise, with a part of his inheritance. . . . Then the whole
process is put into reverse: he recovers his splendid robe, the image of God, and
will rule with his brother, his heavenly second self, Jesus (cf. Thomas and Jesus as
twins) in the (heavenly) kingdom.”40
This story inverts a version of the missionary story itself, warning of the dangers
that befall a traveler who forgets the intent of his mission. The type/antitype pattern-
ing of the hymn’s images relates to themes from the dominant narrative. The values of
the hymn compare to the ideals of the Acts of Thomas. Unlike Thomas, who maintains
his course to Christ through prayer,41 even in imprisonment, the prince of the hymn
begins with purpose but loses his way. The hymn reunites a family broken apart; the
Acts of Thomas breaks up earthly families and discourages marriage. The hymn cele-
brates royalty; the Acts of Thomas promotes simplicity and anonymity. The prince of
the “Hymn on the Pearl” must hold fast to his material possessions,42 whereas the Acts
of Thomas promises freedom through poverty. Thomas, though a pauper and magi-
cian in the temporal world, emerges as a superior double of the royal son.43 Both the
prince and Thomas move from freeborn social statuses into slavery. Both complete
missions in service to a lord. Both fall into a decadent society but Thomas resists its
temptations.44 He, unlike the prince, never forgets his royal lineage.
The interpolation of this hymn into the Acts of Thomas preserves a beautiful
piece of literature and combines the image of the itinerant missionary apostle with
that of an imprisoned bard, painting an icon of the missionary poet. In subsequent
missionary texts, intellectual practices involving speech, debaters, letter writers,
preachers, or hagiographers continue the tradition of speaking charismata of the
missionary holy man, but the specific image of the poet apostle is unique to the
Acts of Thomas.
The sanctification of itinerancy and journeys, as presented in the Acts of Tho-
mas, has a long trajectory in the stories of the Syrians. The notion of holy itiner-
ancy and homelessness in the Acts of Thomas might in fact reflect an early period
in Syrian Christianity of wandering ascetics, as Daniel Caner has suggested.45 By
the fifth century, however, monastic detachment brings conflict with the church
leaders in the cities.46
As we discuss in subsequent chapters of this book, the theological themes of
detachment, homelessness, poverty, and itinerant healing in the Acts of Thomas
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26 Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India
reemerge in Syriac texts of the fifth and sixth centuries as symbols of legitimacy for
monks and Miaphysite bishops exiled from their sees.47 Miaphysite bishops like
Simeon of Beth Arsham and Jacob Baradaeus (described in chapters 5 and 6 of this
book) lose the support of the imperial church. Their hagiographer John of Ephesus
gravitates to the narrative typology of the itinerant missionary saint that is canon-
ized in the Acts of Thomas. John of Ephesus will cast the bishops according to this
ideal. Persecution drives Syriac monks from the safety of their monasteries. John
will use the model of itinerancy, as glorified in the Acts of Thomas, to redefine
their lack of stability as holy itinerancy, once consecrated in Syriac memory as
“apostolicity.”
Model Societies: Converting the King, Creating Christian Families
The Acts of Thomas established a paradigm that future Syriac missionary stories
adopted: Christianity arrives in the Syrian Orient through the conversion of the
royal household. Thomas proclaims the message of Christianity to the kingdoms
of India, and riots follow. Thomas challenges social orders that madden local rul-
ers. Kings pursue the apostle throughout the narrative, and they even incarcerate
him. The building of a new Christian society, as the legend portrays it, requires
that Thomas disrupt the regnant power structures. His challenges are largely eco-
nomic, disrupting the kingdom’s financial administration and threatening the
familial structures that ensure the continuity of the household economy. In one
instance, Thomas fails to fulfill his obligations of labor to the king. Rather than
building a palace for the king as commissioned, Thomas gives the money to the
poor to build a palace in heaven, and Gundaphorus imprisons him.48
In the Acts of Thomas, programs of asceticism and social reform sustain com-
munity welfare.49 Christianity creates communities structured on asceticism and
care of the poor. The missionary teaches Christian labor to the city. Thomas, whom
King Gundaphorus hires to construct a palace, gives the money meant for the
edifice to the poor instead. When the king asks about the progress of Thomas’s
palace building, the royal messengers respond:
He is not doing anything [with respect to the construction], but rather he goes
around in cities and towns giving to the poor and teaching them a new God. Also he
heals the sick, and he drives out demons. . . . We thought that he was a sorcerer. It is
thought from his asceticism and his religion that he is a magician or an apostle of the
new God. He fasts and prays a great deal. He eats bread and salt and drinks water. He
wears a linen garment and takes nothing from anyone. Anything that he has, he gives
to others.50
Thomas’s other economic challenges entail the “corruption” of the pagan house-
hold. Thomas intervenes on the night of the princess bride’s marriage to stop the
young couple from having intercourse.51 King Gundaphorus runs Thomas out of
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